Why is it so many stunning flowers have such coarse names? Borage sounds like something your mother has to force you to eat. In reality, borage is a...
reBlogged
to borage herbs
on Apr 17, 2008, 9:01PM
Posted by Reblogged by Old Roses to borage, herbs on 2008-04-18, 18:00:41
This evening I had the pleasure of attending Amy Stewart's appearance at The Horticultural Society of New York. Amy was promoting the paperback edition of her bestseller, Flower Confidential, and provided a synopsis of the themes she covers in...
Here is the online link to this week's The List: Top Home & Garden Events on page 26 of today's print edition in the Washington Examiner. You can find the Examiner in the many red street-boxes around town. I saved a screen capture of the listing as a JPG and posted it here -- which you can click on to read at 100%. . . .
Every morning, during the school year, I drive down a certain highway. From the road, for about a month every spring, I see the top of a large tree clothed in nothing but light, buttercup, yellow blossoms, the color and texture of the finest cream.
This spring, I decided to see the tree up close. [...]
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to nursery
on Apr 17, 2008, 3:06PM
Posted by Dee Reblogged by Old Roses to nursery on 2008-04-18, 17:59:18
Today NPR had a very interesting story about predator plants in our gardens. It seems that we gardeners have innocently planted these predators in our gardens not knowing how these affect the natural environment around us. I wonder if I have any of these pesky plants in my garden. NPR has a link to a web site with information on these plants in your area and will help you identify such plants in your garden.
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to plants
Posted by rusty in miami Reblogged by Old Roses to plants on 2008-04-18, 17:59:05
I could tell this morning, when the birds were louder than the chuckle and siss of my coffee maker, that spring has sprung officially and certainly, no doubt about it. It even seemed almost a little easier to bounce out of bed this morning. Now that the forsythia is in full bloom I think it’s time to really pay attention or the next thing you know it’ll be mid-summer! Do you have color associations for the different phases of the seasons? Spring, to me, is a bright yellow and light greenish feathery time and then there’s an early summer shift to pale blue. . . .
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to botanical_garden
on Apr 17, 2008, 3:54PM
Posted by Kris Reblogged by Old Roses to botanical_garden on 2008-04-18, 17:57:01
As a self-confessed gadget obsessive, I'm both optimistic and cynical when new products hit the market. Not that garden spray nozzles are particularly new but as hose fittings they've come a long way since the technological achievements of the twist head sprayer.
In fact, it was probably the twist head that paved the way for these new fan-dangled multi-sprayers. Where once we were excited with the amount of control we could brandish over our watering tasks, we can no longer settle for gradual increments from jet to spray. It always has to be more. . . .
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to tools watering
on Apr 17, 2008, 6:44PM
It's time to pot up plants after you have divided them. If your pond is like mine, you have many more plants coming up this spring that you had last fall. So hack them in two or three or four pieces at the bottom and repot them. Here's how. . .
LOOOOOONG-time fans of the City of Nouns might just remember Grill Hobstein. Yesterday, just after I’d returned from walking Gregory to school, he called my cell. “Mommy,” he said with remorse in his voice, “I forgot my lunch.” So, off I went, lunchbag in hand and camera around my neck. The picture above shows downtown [...]
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to trees flowers
on Dec 31, 1969, 6:59PM
Hey! We've got blooms! Outside! And even better is the fact that we will have blooms for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day from now until Thanksgiving. Yay!
The little Tête à Tête daffodils are in their prime right now. To get an idea of the small size of them, the plant in the background is a small sedum.
I bought some more Tête à Têtes and planted them here and there so I'd have more color for the bridal shower that's being held here this weekend. Besides, spring is the time when I wish I'd planted more bulbs in the fall, and you can better see where they can effectively be placed. So I wait until they're done blooming in the stores and are marked down drastically, then pick them up. That way I can plant them where they need to go for more blooms the next year!. ..
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to flowers
Posted by Kylee Reblogged by Old Roses to flowers on 2008-04-18, 17:51:02
My friend Stephen Scanniello, an internationally renowned rosarian, former curator of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Cranford Rose Garden, author of "A Year of Roses" and "Roses of America," and president of the Heritage Rose Foundation, stopped by today to offer expert tips for pruning roses. It comes in handy to know people in high places, doesn't it. . .
Last year, I used corn gluten to hopefully dent the of invasion of crabgrass in my lawn. I knew based on my conversations with Professor Christians, the inventor of corn gluten as an herbicide that it would take three years to rid my lawn of the ugly looking “wanna be” grass. After speaking to the Professor, I became a corn gluten believer and I was ready to take the corn gluten plunge. I was not a pesticide type of gal. . .
reBlogged
to lawn weeds organic
on Apr 17, 2008, 11:45AM
My new garden has a challenge that I've never faced in Florida before - WIND. It's not just a soft breeze that dances across your skin or lightly lifts your hair up. Oh no, as you can hear in this video it is a powerful north wind that scatters Spanish moss all over the entire front lawn every time a cold front blows in. We burned two mini-mountains of Spanish moss this past winter, and the trees are still full of it. So, I can’t plant any delicate debutantes like my favorite angel trumpet or banana trees whose leaves would be in shreds in no time at all. Fortunately, the winds are at their strongest during the winter months only.
The good thing about being on the south side of the lake is that it keeps the temperatures a wee bit warmer in the winter, and it seems that we get more rain in the summer. And, in Florida, these days that’s a good thing!
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to weather
Posted by Susan Reblogged by Old Roses to weather on 2008-04-18, 06:23:03
The bulb for this amaryllis was given to me by a student family in early December as a Christmas gift. I followed the instructions carefully, but for months it just wouldn't grow beyond the few initial spikes of leaves. I thought perhaps I had over-watered it initially, or hadn't watered it enough. Maybe it was too cold in the indoor garden room. I felt like Charlie Brown and his little Christmas tree: "I've killed it.". . .
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to amaryllis
Posted by Beth Reblogged by Old Roses to amaryllis on 2008-04-18, 06:22:42
A few weeks ago I was asked if I would like to review this book, no strings attached. One look at the cover made me say yes. If you know me at all, then you know that organic is right up my street and as this book claims to be 100 % organic, how could I refuse? A few days after I had said yes, I received the book through the mail. It made a resounding thump in my mailbox because, good heavens, is this a hefty tome or what; 820 pages in all!. . .
We are still a couple weeks away from flowers like this here in Wisconsin. Instead these are pictures from the Milwaukee Botanical Domes. If you are in Milwaukee and like to garden I highly recomend visiting the domes.
reBlogged
to botanical_garden
Posted by Lisa Reblogged by Old Roses to botanical_garden on 2008-04-18, 06:21:32
In this article on About's Pediatrics site, we are reminded that about "85 percent of the population will develop an allergic reaction if exposed to poison ivy," which you can...
reBlogged
to pests
on Apr 17, 2008, 12:20AM
Posted by Reblogged by Old Roses to pests on 2008-04-18, 06:21:02
Today I transplanted a brugmansia that I first planted almost two years ago. Although these are typically fast-growing plants, mine has been struggling since the very start. There has been die-back due to frost the last two winters, but I think the main problem is that the bed that I planted it in seems to not be deep enough for it to establish significant roots. Although I really wanted to see it in that spot along the south fence, in the end I had to give in and move it to a big oak wine barrel that I recently emptied. There it should have room to put out enough roots to make it happy.
If there's a downside to teaching children how to nurture a green, nutritious school garden, it's hard to fathom. The list of touted benefits is lengthy: students reap fresh air and physical exercise, hands-on participation, awareness of the natural environment, so called "school bonding," and an unprecedented taste for raw spinach. For school faculty, there are welcome breaks in the classroom regimen, an engaging outlet for unruly pupils, and a bridge to involvement with volunteers in the community. And parents get to share skills and experience, from farm expertise to carpentry, that once felt irrelevant to an academic setting. . . .
I don’t know too much about this genetic dwarf Peach Tree other than I like it every time I see it. I have always wanted to grow one but haven’t gotten around to actually buying one. Long thin burgundy leaves and peaches follow these flowers in the summer. . . .
reBlogged
to trees flowers
on Apr 17, 2008, 5:29AM
"Pink" refers to the zigzag pattern, as if the petals were cut with pinking shears.
Here it flourishes in the driest, rockiest areas. The previous owner laid down a narrow chert road through the woods. Fire Pink popped up along the edges and multiplies every year, fashioning its own version of a red carpet.
reBlogged
to flowers
Posted by Rurality Reblogged by Old Roses to flowers on 2008-04-18, 06:17:42
I've been spending entire afternoons out working in the garden. Nearly finished the potato cages, created a new bed with newspaper smothering, grass clippings, and compost (will add dirt to the top next week sometime? and a trellis to cover the worlds ugliest, most imposing plastic fence). . .
I have come to the conclusion that my favorite primrose is whichever one is blooming that day...Oh fickle heart, Oh footloose devotion, Oh... whatever. Anyway, I think my really, truly favorite primrose is actually Primula vulgaris ssp. sibthorpii, which is a subtype of the common primrose of northern Europe.The ssp. sibthorpii hails from the Balkans; a harsher climate making for a hardier plant. It is the first primrose to bloom every spring in our garden, with bright pink flowers covered with bees, and lovely light green foliage. As easy and undemanding as it is, I've never fathomed why this plant is so seldom (if ever, in this country) offered for sale. I can't tell you to rush right out and buy it for your garden, as likely you'll be standing there on the curb with a five dollar bill in your hand and no place to go with it. Every year I whack another piece or two off of my original plant, and replant it in another spot; my goal is to eventually have an entire garden brimming with this one primrose... though I'll have to leave room for all the other primulas that I love... did I mention that I'm fickle?
via My Country Cottage Garden on 1969-12-31, 19:00:00
